ETRURIA MEETS EUROPE - CULTURAL ASSOCIATION
September 11, 1996
Build the autostrada due mari---maybe
By Marvin Zonis
The question of building the autostrada due mari s obviously a very complex issue. There are many reasons to build it and many reasons not to build it. But the conclusion I have reached is that some improvement must be made to the road network across the high Tiber valley and made quickly. If the citizens of the high Tiber valley can participate in the location and design of the autostrada due mare, then a new road should be built. But if the government highway planners intend to drive the road across the valley, then we must all work to prevent the building of a new road. Instead, we should work for improvements to the existing network of east-west roads. Let me try to explain to you how I have reached this conclusion.
We1all love the beauty of the high Tiber valley. We are stunned by the nature and quality of its light, its clean air, its beautiful mountains and clear sky.
But anyone who has lived in the high Tiber valley also appreciates how poor are its roads. To go to Arezzo to take the train to Rome or Florence is a challenging drive - a formula one race - time consuming and also dangerous - a narrow curving road overloaded with heavy trucks. The roads to the sea are no better. The roads to Fano and Pesaro and Rimini from both Citta di Castello and from San Giustino are appalling - no one in Italy, or any other country - at the end of the twentieth century, should have to drive on roads so dangerous and of such poor quality.
There is still another point. In order for the people of the high Tiber valley to prosper and to live lives of dignity and comfort, it is necessary that the economy of the high Tiber valley grow and flourish. That is only possible when the farms and the factories and the workplaces of the valley are connected to the rest of Italy and to the rest of the world with modern, high speed, and inexpensive communication links.
In fact, the communication links between the valley and the rest of the country are very bad. There is, in effect, no air service. One flight per day between San Egidio and Milan at 6 in the morning is not air service. Train service is also very poor - Arezzo in Tuscany is where the train service is. What is left to connect the high Tiber valley to the rest of the world is truck transportation.
But the only decent road links between the valley and the rest of the world run north and south-to Cesena in the north and to Rome in the south. Nothing moves easily fast or west.
The challenge for all of us committed residents of the high Tiber valley is to balance these two goals - beauty, tranquillity, clean air and clean water on the one hand with economically efficient road transportation on the other hand.
To achieve this balance, this compromise is not easy. But I believe it can be done. It has been accomplished in many other countries of the world. Italy, after all, is not the first country in the world to confront these seemingly contrary goals. But to balance these two goals of preserving the particular qualities of the valley and to build a road to facilitate economic development will require citizen participation.
What 1 would now like to do is to relate to you the findings of a number of scientific studies which have been made of highways which have been built in a very large number of different countries. By now, so many of these highways have been built that we basically know the effects of these roads. What are they?
Highways have effects in a number of areas.
Physical effects: the existence of a highway affects air, water, soils and rocks in the environment. The air quality can actually be improved as freeways or autostrade actually reduce the number of stops and starts and gear chances which vehicles make, especially in large trucks. Another positive factor for air quality is that on fast roads, the speed of cars and trucks tends to be more uniform and higher than on ordinary roads. The sustained higher speeds of freeways, as compared with regular roads, also create air movements that mix pollutants and disperse them over a larger area where their effect is reduced.
In rare cases, new highways may actually improve water quality
but in most cases, the construction and the operation of the road
have primarily negative effects on water quality.
Both soil and rock will be disturbed in the areas through which
highways pass, generally with damaging results.
Highways have powerful effects on plant life and wildlife. New highways can provide open spaces (on their borders) in which special plants and trees may be planted. Such plantings may provide cover and food for wildlife and scenic diversity for motorists. Strips of land along new highways can be among the last places where native plants can grow in intensively developed regions where almost all the land is cultivated or pre-empted for other uses. This has occurred especially in Great Britain, where many rare plants now grow along highways.
New roads are also effective firebreaks. They also make possible the speedy transport of men and equipment to the scene of a forest or brush fire.
With proper planning, freeway lands may be beneficial to wildlife in rural environments, providing shelter and new habitats. Many animals have been found to nest under bridges. This has been especially true in the United States where lands along roads have been set aside for animal habitats. A study in Great Britain has found that 20 of 50 British mammals, 6 of 6 reptiles, 40 of 200 birds, 25 of 60 butterflies, and 8 of 17 bumblebees breed on lands adjacent to freeways.
General economic growth and development: improved accessibility is the single most important economic benefit of the development of highways. The costs involved in travelling from one location to another are reduced. These reductions in cost come about through a reduction in travel time (which in itself has monetary value to people) and/or vehicle operating costs. Both individuals and firms realise these benefits. By altering the relative accessibility of different locations, new roads play a significant role in the decision of firms to locate in one place or another.
New roads change real estate values. The value of land close to most highways increase significantly. Local tax revenues also increase as a result of the higher value of land near highways and the increased economic activity which roads usually bring.
New roads bring other benefits to individuals by reducing the cost and effort of travel, allowing for more time to be devoted to other activities. Freeways provide access to more jobs. Greater access to jobs may eliminate the need for workers and their families to move to find work.
We all benefit as well because there are always fewer accidents on good roads as well as greater mental health because driving fatigue and stress are reduced. In the US, the accident rate on ordinary roads is about 4 times higher than on modern highways.)
Another great benefit of modern highways is that they benefit even the people who never drive on them. By removing trucks and traffic from local streets, new highways provide greater safety on existing streets as well as reduce pollution and crowding.
Regional and national effects. Highways help to enhance national unity by contributing to the interdependence of cities and rural areas and regions.
It is clear that there are vast positive economic and social benefits to be derived from new highways. This would be especially the case in the high Tiber valley. The construction of the autostrada due mari would allow Umbria to be linked to the rest of the country and would provide quick access for goods from Umbrian farms and factories to be delivered more quickly and more cheaply to domestic as well as foreign markets.
If this is the case, what is the problem? The problem as we all understand is the fear that we all have that any new road will violate the countryside, will not respect the natural magnificence of the high Tiber valley and will become a permanent scar on the land.
However, it is possible to build a new road which is not an aesthetic disaster. In the United States we have created what is called the "scenic roads" project to build new highways for economic benefit and also to exploit and maintain the beauty of the region through which a new highway passes. Standards for scenic highways require that federal, state, and local governments take action to protect the scenic appearance of the roadway including regulating the use of land and development, detailed land and site planning, control of outdoor advertising, control of all earth moving, control of landscaping, and of the design and appearance of all road structures.
The point is that in the United States we have come to understand that local governments and local people must play a major role in achieving truly scenic highways. The state looks to local governments to plan scenic highways and to protect the countryside. Local government also plays a major role in the initial selection of routes for the new highway based on such considerations as the intrinsic scenic value and experiences the route would provide; the transition between different landscape regions or climatic areas; degree to which the routes would link specific scenic, historical, and recreations points of interest; relationship of the routes to urban areas; and opportunities for bypassing major sites.
Other countries have similar systems for building highways which preserve, - to the maximum extent possible - the beauty of the local area. All italian citizens here in the upper Tiber valley must demand that the state allow them to play a major role in determining where the autostrada due mari should go, what it should look like, and what special steps the government will take to minimise the brutality of the highway and to preserve the extraordinary qualities of the upper Tiber valley.
If the state will not agree to do this, then we should all demand that no road be built at all. Instead, existing roads can be made safer and made capable of carrying more traffic. Sharp corners can be straightened. Narrow lanes can be widened. Bypasses can be built around crowded intersections.
For in the end we all understand that economic benefit is often achieved at the cost of other things - less tangible qualities. Qualities of aesthetics, qualities of charm, qualities of grace and beauty. Once destroyed, once lost, these qualities are lost forever.
So let us work together to preserve these qualities which are why we all cherish the high Tiber valley. For these qualities are not only special, they are unique.
Thank you all very much.
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Marvin Zonis is a professor of international political economy at the graduate school of business of the University Of Chicago.